What to add to RSpec valid_attributes when it is validating related models

Question

I am new to RSpec and Cucumber BDD development, and it's a big leap up. Using rake generate scaffold model_name I've produced a ton of code that seems to make some sense, but that I'm not super confident with. I was doing ok with RSpec until I added some database relationships and model validations, and then it all blew up and I don't really know what the best-practice or cleanest way of fixing it would be. It's obvious my problem is that "valid attributes" needs to be defined with a foreign key linking to a valid Patient/Anaesthetist/Procedure/Surgeon, but I have no idea how I should write this in RSpec (maybe use FactoryGirl to generate a valid object of each model?) The model RSpec code makes sense to me, but the controller code is out of my depth. Seems like it should be do-able in one line, or maybe four lines (one for each object), but that should be it. The code ``` #app/models/procedure.rb class Procedure < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :patient belongs_to :surgeon belongs_to…

Accepted Answer

It's the `POST create` and `PUT update` that's failing, and from the looks of things the records aren't being created because the valid_attributes aren't right, so you made a good conclusion!

You could approach it like this...

```
describe ProceduresController do
  # This should return the minimal set of attributes required to create a valid
  # Procedure. As you add validations to Procedure, be sure to
  # adjust the attributes here as well.
  let(:patient) { FactoryGirl.create(:patient) }
  let(:surgeon) { FactoryGirl.create(:surgeon) }
  let(:anaesthetist) { FactoryGirl.create(:anaesthetist)}
  let(:hospital) { FactoryGirl.create(:hospital) }
  let(:valid_attributes) { { "description" => "MyText", 
                             "patient_id" => patient.id, 
                             "surgeon_id" => surgeon.id, 
                             "anaesthetist_id" => anaesthetist.id, 
                             "hospital_id" => hospital.id } }
```

And I'd expect your create and update actions will work now.

What to add to RSpec valid_attributes when it is validating related models

Solution

Problem